The use of optical scanners, and in particular, laser scanners, is common in many diverse businesses to expedite and at least partially automate many tedious and repetitive tasks. One typical example of the use of laser scanners is in the checkout of groceries where a Universal Product Code (UPC) is preprinted on the package of each grocery item in the form of a bar code. This code is scanned during checkout to identify each purchased item and to enable a computerized cash register that connects to the laser scanner to tally sales, print receipts, store information for inventory control and perform other computations upon the scanned data. With inventory knowledge as to which products have been purchased over periods of time, the grocery store can automatically calculate a day's sales, restock shelves, and order products for resupply, in anticipation of future sales.
Typically, these laser scanners are fixedly-mounted to a structure that permits the passage of code-bearing products within the range of the scanner. These fixedly-mounted laser scanners can either scan continuously or otherwise instantaneously detect the presence of a scannable product and initiate an object-sense scan for a fixed period of time.
However, a fixed mounting does not satisfy all of the potential uses for laser scanners. Portable laser scanners have also been developed, permitting mobile users to perform the aforementioned tasks, as well as other tasks.
For example, fixedly-mounted scanners typically require goods to be passed by a predefined space in a predefined manner, so that the bar code can be properly scanned. Often times, the predefined space is small, and fixedly-mounted scanners are required to be mounted in a predefined orientation. For example, in the grocery checkout implementation, laser-scanners are typically mounted with a vertical orientation, with goods moved past a predefined scanning space with the associated bar code correspondingly facing up or down. Portable laser scanners are not bound by this limitation, and therefore, may readily be used with large goods, heavy goods, stacked goods, etc., as well as with other objects. In fact, the use of bar code scanners of this type is by no means limited to grocery and retail stores, and find significant application to warehouse inventory control.
Typically, portable laser scanners are configured as hand-held units with pistol-type grips having a trigger-switch. A scanner is aimed at the bar code and a scan actuated by pulling the trigger. The scanning laser beam is then emitted from the front of the portable laser scanner, away from the user, and reflected back to the portable laser scanner, which detects and decodes the bar code.
In most typical uses, both fixed-mount and portable scanners periodically require additional inputs from the user, e.g., identifying the quantity of items that correspond to the one item currently being scanned, or marking the completion of inventory on a particular warehouse area. Keyboards are typically used for these inputs, and multi-character visual displays also are used adjacent to the keyboard, both to confirm these inputs as well as to view other, stored data. In the case of portable scanners, the keyboard is typically mounted upon the top surface of the scanner with its keys oriented in a direction of normal reading with respect to the user, i.e., alphanumeric indicia represented upon the keyboard and visual display are shown as upright, and not rotated or upside down, or otherwise displayed in a manner that would render their interpretation and use difficult.
Thus, portable laser scanners find their primary use as hand-held devices to read bar code labels attached to a wide variety of objects. When one adds a computer with memory, and a keyboard with display to a portable hand-held scanner, the result is a bar code scanning, data-acquisition and storage device. The operator of the device can then manually enter and edit data through the keyboard. When configured in this manner, the end product is a portable transaction and inventory computer.
It would be desirable to have a portable scanner that could alternatively be used as part of a fixed point-of-sale transaction device, such as a cash register, and thus, which would have a large variety of practical applications. Such a device could easily be adapted to the retail environment, thereby simplifying repair and maintenance of the point-of-sale transaction device.
Unfortunately, application of portable scanners to a fixed point-of-sale environment, and application to fixed-mount scanners to an inventory control environment continue to quite limited, and the two types of scanners are for the most part distinct. As mentioned, conventional portable laser scanners typically feature a laser which is directed away from the user. However, the keyboard and display are oriented toward the user, who may thereby view the display and enter data. If one were to use a portable laser scanner in a conventional, fixedly-mounted environment, with the scanning occurring vertically downward toward the goods so that the laser beam is not reflected and scattered about the store, the orientation of the display and keyboard would render them practically unusable. For example, in many grocery check-out implementations, both the keyboard and display would be upside-down and could only with difficulty be read by a retail clerk. Additionally, even if one could tolerate the misorientation of the display and keyboard, the scanning would only occur when the trigger was depressed as an object-sense mode would not normally be present with a portable scanner, and it would be difficult for the retail clerk to operate the trigger.
To adapt a portable scanner to the point-of-sale environment, one would have to fasten a portable hand held scanner securely to a base, with the laser beam directed away from the operator. To read a bar code label affixed to an object, the operator would then have to reach awkwardly across the scanner and place the object behind the scanner to intercept the laser beam. If the device was mounted such that the laser beam projects parallel to the floor surface, the system would be undesirable for use in a large department store, because the laser beam might be reflected about the store.
Thus, what is needed is a portable laser scanner that can additionally be made to function as a fixedly-mounted scanner by adapting the configuration of the display and keyboard to an altered work environment. Additionally, such a scanner should automatically adapt to the different orientations by either scanning in response to a trigger depression or in an `object-sense` mode in response to a scannable item entering its scanning field, for portable and fixedly-mounted scanners, respectively. The present invention solves these needs and provides further related advantages.